Mental Competing Rehearsal

Do you do it?
90% of performance is physical, 10% is mental… but the 10% controls the 90% - Brian Risk

Learning and practicing the skills necessary are not that hard, and if done frequently enough not that time consuming.

This quick post is how I set up the processes to develop the skills necessary to improve mental rehearsal.

Breathing correctly is the base of any mental imagery you perform.  It has the ability to help relaxation, centre yourself, and control the outcome of an event.

Brief outline of the approach that I follow;

Breathing


  • Lie on the floor in a quiet room, better if it is carpet and dark,
    • If need be place a small pillow under
      • your head and
      • knees
  • Lightly place hand on Chest and Stomach,
  • Breathe, concentrating on the stomach raising, that is the diaphragm and not the chest,
  • Breathe slowly.  Inhale, hold, and exhale,
    • Inhale through your nose
    • Exhale through your mouth
  • Introduce the concept of slow breathing and start with the following
    • Inhale – Count of 3
    • Hold – Count of 3
    • Exhale – Count of 3
  • Note – This breathing pattern will over time become a count of 5
    • Inhale – Count of 5
    • Hold – Count of 5
    • Exhale – Count of 5
  • Do this for 2 to 5 minutes
  • Over time this will reduce

The next step is relaxation

Using the breathing techniques as prescribed above will generally result in good relaxation; however there are a few things to improve relaxation.

Relaxation

  • ·     Still lying and using the breathing methods taught above
  •       You start a protocol of tensing a body part(s) and relaxing it
    •     Be aware of the feeling of the both the tension and relaxing
    •       An easy approach to this is as follows
      •      Tense a foot and lower leg, and then relax it.
      •      Do the other foot and lower leg
      •        Tense both feet and lower leg, and relax
      •        Tense upper leg and relax
      •       Tense entire legs and relax
  •      Lastly concentrate of the movement of the breath.
    •     Some people follow the breath, and
    •       Some people feel the body move with the breath

The next step is the commencement of mental imagery

  • ·      Pretend you are lying on a beach with nothing on your feet
  •        Push your feet into the sand, and feel the sensation as you wiggle your feet around
  •        As you breath listen for the waves gentle break, and the sun beating down on you
  •        Try and visualise this.
    • My understanding of this, is that the majority of people either
      • Look out and see the beach and water, or
      • See themselves on the beach.

Big thanks to my 1991 Sports Science Teacher, Clive Roper, for the commencement of this part of my coaching journey

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Understanding 100m Speed

Image
Understanding 100m Speed According to Kovacs (2005) the 100 metre can be broken up into the following model Figure 1 If you look at figure 1 above, maximum speed is reached between 40 and 70 metres.   In table 1, below, shows the respective 20m splits and reaction time of the medallists at the 2009 IAAF World Championships (IAAF: 2009).   The table indicates that all three of the medallists run their fastest 20 metre segments between 60 and 80 metres.   Further evidence of when the elite 100 metres sprinters reach and run there fastest splits is shown in table 2 (Lee 2008)             Usain Bolt Tyson Gay Asafa Powell RT 0.146 0.144 0.134 20 2.88 2.88 2.92 2.92 2.91 2.91 40 4.64 1.76 4.70 1.78 4.71 1.80 60 6.31 1.67 6.39 1.69 6.42 1.71 80 7.92 1.61 8.02
Read more

Performance after peaking phase

The Saturday just finished was one of the biggest events the Athletics community in Hobart has prior to Christmas, the meet is important as it is the meet to allow the athletic fraternity to celebrate and remember our past greats.  As a person I believe it is important that we remember them. After an athlete had followed a 10 day peaking cycle he came out and run 0.40 seconds faster in the 400m.  His comment was he didn't run fast enough in the first 200m, so he could have run faster.  Unfortuately I missed the meet, as I had another function to attend. The question I need to ask as a coach, did the peaking cycle work? What do we need to improve on? As a coach, it is a learning experience with every athlete as they are all slightly individual. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Read more

Competition Nerves

This weekend, is the first major competition for school aged athletes.  Fortunately I only have two resistance athletes competing. Fortunately I hear you ask. I am a nervous watcher of track and field when athletes I coach are competing.  As an athlete I rarely got nervous, as I knew what work I had done and what I expected from this training.  As a coach, I watch my athlete get ready for an event and the time between wishing them luck to the completion of their race I have no control, I have to hope we have done the work and reduced the work load correctly and satisfactorily to perform at a desired level. That being said, I have never been disappointed at the effort of the athlete, but sometimes the result has been lacking. So to all athletes and coaches, good luck at your competition and hope you achieve the result from the training you have done
Read more